Bread for astronauts: how it is baked, and how rolls and loaves differ from store-bought ones (6 photos)

Food for space station personnel is not only tubes, which contain quite a complete meal. Bread, which is the head even space, is also part of the diet of astronauts. True, over the recipe had to be wiser so that eating it was not fraught problems.





It is clear that loaves with you to eat soup and goulash are not take it. Since the instantly multiplied crumbs filled with themselves space. And in conditions of weightlessness, even an insignificant trifle can cause serious problems.



That's what bakery workers are for. developed a special bread. Exactly one bite, so that the dirty crumbs do not formed, and the astronauts were not left without their usual food.

By the way, developments to create space bread were carried out in conditions of strict secrecy. For what purpose are these tiny rolls, knew a limited circle of specialists.





But size was important, but not the only problem. It was also necessary to significantly slow down the staleness and prevent the appearance of mold. This task was also successfully completed. And not just successfully, but diversified the assortment of space bread with wheat, Borodino, Riga and even honey cake.



The ingredients for the dough are the same: flour, sourdough, salt, yeast. You have to tinker with another, with weight. Every little one shaped by hand, and then also weighed. After all, the weight of a rye cube should not exceed 6 grams, and wheat counterparts are even lighter, only 4 grams.

Formed and weighed blanks are sent to a special form of 80 cells, and ready-made loaves are packed in 10 things. For the delivery of bread, a special packaging technology has been developed and thermal sterilization. The film copes well with this task, withstanding a pressure of 0.6 atmospheres and a temperature of more than 100 degrees.



That is, each mini-loaf retains a sufficient amount moisture, allowing it not to turn into a cosmic cobblestone. stored bread without loss of characteristics for as long as 15 months. To an astronaut without problems could please himself with a muffin, as if just extracted from ovens.